Average university has fewer than two VR headsets for games students

However, hundreds of universities want to teach virtual reality to budding games designers

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Academic institutes around the world are keen on including VR development among the many games courses they offer, but most are unequipped to do so.

A new study by Crytek, the Germany-based firm behind the VR-optimised CryEngine, found that the average university has fewer than two headsets available to their students. This is despite overwhelming interest in the craft of virtual reality.

Of those 201, around 88 per cent already offer, or are planning to introduce, a virtual reality course.

Oculus Rift represents a majority – 67 per cent – of the headsets that have actually made it to university classrooms. A further 15 per cent are Samsung’s Gear VR device, with Vive VR making up 11 per cent.

Crytek’s senior business development manager Ferhan Özkan says this needs to be improved upon if the virtual reality market is going to attract the skills it needs.

“According to our predictions, the VR industry is likely to require many more skilled development graduates than it will be producing in the next years,” he said. “At the same time our data clearly shows that universities are under-equipped to implement educational goals and satisfy the VR industry’s demand.”

The first wave of VR headsets isn’t even on shelves and yet developers are already spoilt for choice. Develop gets a grip on virtual reality’s many contenders with the help of Oculus VR’s Jason Rubin, Valve’s Chet Faliszek, PlayStation’s Simon Benson and Razer’s Jeevan Aurol